Six protesters who attended a vigil for Sarah Everard are no longer facing prosecution.

They had been accused of breaking lockdown rules by going to Clapham Common on 13 March last year.

It followed the abduction, rape, and murder of Ms Everard by then-serving police officer Wayne Couzens.

But the “legal test” for a prosecution has not been met, the Crown Prosecution Service said (CPS).

Lawyers for the protesters were told the prosecutions were being “discontinued” last week, The Observer newspaper reported.

“We have a duty to keep cases under continuous review and we concluded that our legal test for a prosecution was not met,” a CPS spokesperson said.

The event, organised by Reclaim These Streets, was cancelled after Scotland Yard said it should not go ahead.

The High Court, though, failed to provide a definitive answer on the matter.

People turned up, nevertheless, laying flowers, while the Duchess of Cambridge also paid her respects.

For the first six hours, police did not intervene, but by the evening, hundreds of people had gathered, leading to clashes in which dozens were bundled to the ground and arrested.

Read more:
What went wrong at the Sarah Everard vigil?

One of the protesters, Dania Al-Obeid, welcomed the CPS’s decision, but said the matter was not over.

“This is a victory in its own right, but it doesn’t hold the Met accountable for their actions at the vigil or for their decisions to criminalise me and others for standing up and speaking out over a year later,” Ms Al-Obeid told The Observer.

She is now taking legal action against the Met over its policing of the vigil and conduct towards her.

Met Police Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe said the force knows how important it is that people “voice their anger”.

She added: “Officers took very seriously their duty to safeguard the public during the pandemic and to balance this with the rights of individuals.”

Any decision to pursue a prosecution is “entirely a matter for the CPS”, Scotland Yard said.

Wayne Couzens, 49, recently tried to overturn his whole life sentence and failed.

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